Third Coast Audio Library : Creators & Guests

Dennis Funk is an audio producer, showrunner, story editor, sound designer, and composer. He founded and owns the independent production studio Written in Air.Funk has curated audio art and documentary while working with Third Coast International Audio Festival. He has produced features from around the world with The Washington Post. His stories and music have appeared on podcasts, radio, and theatre.

Zak Rosen is a creator and host of the Best Advice podcast.

Matt Largey is a reporter. Currently, he is the Managing Editor of News at KUT Radio.Previously, Largey worked at WBUR in Boston. His work has appeared on many national radio shows. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including a national Edward R. Murrow award in 2013.

Helena de Groot is an audio producer and editor. Currently, she is the editor of "Aria Code," the host and producer of the Poetry Foundation podcast "Poetry Off the Shelf," and the producer and sound designer of the "Paris Review Podcast." She has also contributed to "This American Life."

Casey Miner is an editor, audio producer, and writer. Currently, she is editor for the NPR show "Throughline." She also launched and hosted the podcast "The Specialist."Previously, Miner has worked with Slate, Mother Jones, NPR, Reveal, and the Independent. She has also been a Story Editor for Wondery.

Jonathan Menjivar is a producer for This American Life.

Courtney Stein is an audio producer. Currently, she is a Senior Producer of Opinion Audio for The New York Times.Previously, Stein was an Associate Producer for Radio Rookies, a New York Public Radio initiative that provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories.Stein started her career as a youth worker, directing a youth-run restaurant. She then moved to New York to study social work and community organizing. She decided to work in radio after she heard a Radio Rookies story.She trained at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies and interned at StoryCorps and American RadioWorks, then joined Radio Rookies.

Kelsey Padgett is an audio producer.Padgett has reported and produced stories on law and science for Radiolab. In 2014 she led production on the Radiolab story, “60 Words,” that received a George Foster Peabody Award. She has also worked with NPR’s State of the Re:Union, and contributed to PRX’s The Heart.

Mitra Kaboli is a freelance audio producer, sound designer, and multimedia artist.Kaboli's work has been featured on ESPN’s "Dunkumentaries," NPR’s "Latino USA" and "Making Contact," and WNYC’s "Death, Sex & Money." Much of her work focuses on the experiences of women, the queer community, and people of color living in America and Canada with a signature emphasis on intimacy and emotion. She was the senior producer of the podcast "The Heart" and the sound designer for ESPN's podcast "30 for 30."

Andrei Codrescu is a poet, novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and commentator for National Public Radio. He was Mac Curdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University from 1984 until his retirement in 2009.Codrescu is the author of forty books of poetry, fiction, and essays, and the founder of Exquisite Corpse. He received the Peabody Award for his film "Road Scholar" and the Ovid Prize for poetry.

Erika Beras is a journalist. Her work focuses on wealth and poverty and aging. Currently, she is a host and reporter for NPR's Planet Money.Previously, Beras was a reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio. Before that, she was a reporter at The Miami Herald. Her work has aired on NPR and the BBC.Beras received her degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jessica Cheung is a producer at New York Times' The Daily. Prior to that she worked at NPR.

Laine Kaplan-Levenson is a producer and reporter for NPR's Throughline podcast.Previously, Kaplan-Levenson was the host and producer of WWNO's history podcasts "TriPod: New Orleans at 300" and political podcast "Sticky Wicket."Before that, Kaplan-Levenson was an environmental reporter, covering land loss, fisheries, water management, and other issues of the Louisiana coast for WWNO's Coastal Desk.Kaplan-Levenson has contributed to NPR, This American Life, Marketplace, Latino USA, Oxford American, Here and Now, The World, 70 Million, and Nancy. They served as a host and producer of Last Call, a multiracial collective of queer artists and archivists, and freelanced as a storytelling and podcast consultant, workshop instructor, and facilitator of student-produced audio projects.Kaplan-Levenson is also the founder and host of the live storytelling series, "Bring Your Own." They like to play music and occasionally DJ under the moniker DJ Swimteam.Kaplan-Levenson received their B.A. in American Studies, Film Studies, and Music from Brandeis University, where they also worked at the college radio station.

Meribah Knight is a journalist who relocated to Nashville from Chicago, where she covered business, the economy, housing, crime and transportation. She is the host of The Promise podcast. Most recently she was a staff reporter with Crain’s Chicago Business covering manufacturing in the Rust Belt, aviation and transportation. Prior to Crain’s she was a staff reporter with the Chicago News Cooperative, producing the Chicago section of The New York Times. There she covered a wide range of topics from arts & culture to education to poverty. She was an adjunct lecturer at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Neena Pathak is a freelance writer, audio producer, and editor.Previously, Pathak was been a Supervising Editor at NPR, where she worked on "Invisibilia." Before that, she was a producer for the New York Times show "The Daily." She was also showrunner for the NYT show "Still Processing." Prior to that, she show-ran "Another Round" at BuzzFeed, worked on a variety of public radio podcasts at American Public Media, and got her start at the Transom Story Workshop.

Katie Mingle is a journalist, editor, and podcast producer. Currently, they are a producer with Serial Productions.Previously, Mingle was the senior producer at 99% Invisible. Before that, they produced the radio show Re:sound for the Third Coast Festival in Chicago and worked as a producer for WBEZ.

Tally Abecassis is a documentary filmmaker and podcast producer. Currently, she is a producer for the New York Times Audio.Abecassis created and hosted the podcast "First Day Back," worked on TV series in both English and French, and was the founder and host of the live storytelling series This Really Happened. Her first book, "Barbershops," was published in 2005.Abecassis graduated from Concordia University with a specialization in Communications Studies.

Annie McEwen is a raio producer. Currently, she produces for Radiolab.McEwen began working with audio while completing her M.A. in Folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Gabe Bullard is a freelance journalist, writer, and audio producer. His work largely focuses on nostalgia and popular culture. He is interested in how culture and technology shape our identities and our perception of time. Currently, he is a managing producer for the NPR and WBUR show "Here & Now."Bullard received his B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from Webster University and his M.A. in Literature, Culture, and Technology from American University.